Leadership Effectiveness Analysis

A strategic approach to transformational leadership development

"Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." Peter Drucker, the doyen of management consultants recognised the critical contribution of leaders in successful organisations.

Effective leaders develop a level of self-awareness and a capacity to monitor their own learning and development because they know that leadership attributes can be defined, learned, practised, improved and passed on to others.

Why should my company benchmark and assess leadership competence?

Well-led organisations not only transact tasks efficiently and make good technical use of resources. They go further. They develop, evolve, explore, improve, plan. Successful organisations take the kinds of business risks that are likely to pay off because the risk-takers have a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve and the solid support of those who are going to help them achieve it.

There are five key areas of executive competence that correlate strongly with superior performance:

Personality and Temperament, which determine how closely personal characteristics match those of the role

Technical Know-how related to the business

Management Behaviours demonstrating Leadership competence

Leadership Effectiveness in any context will depend on a mix of these factors:

The link between having a strategy and achieving business objectives is the practice of effective leadership behaviour

Objective knowledge of how your leaders rank against others is a good starting point for honing skills

The essential purpose of leadership assessment is to provide insight and information to improve leadership effectiveness. The Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA) is designed to increase the effectiveness of team members by providing an individualised feedback profile. This profile gives a framework for understanding how your style and approach affects your ability to lead and influence others

Leaders need to take responsibility for their interpersonal impact. Individuals are assisted in setting goals for enhanced interpersonal performance and create action plans to modify their behaviour in need

What dimensions of leadership are important?

Every organisation needs to determine how they define their desired culture and leadership style, which must support their unique vision. There are some elements of leadership which are important to the effective functioning of leaders in any environment, irrespective of function, level or corporate need. The following areas are assessed by LEA:

Creating a vision

Traditional

Innovative

Technical

Self

Strategic

Developing Followers

Persuasive

Outgoing

Excitement

Implementing the Vision

Structuring

Tactical

Communication

Delegation

Follow Through

Control

Restraint

Feedback

Achieving results

Management focus

Dominant

Production

Team Playing

Co-operation

Consensual

Authority

Empathy

Does this imply that one size fits all?

Each organisation must define and redefine its Strategic Leadership Directions, which will be unique to that organisation. Senior Management must identify the specific leadership practices, which are required to meet the organisation’s strategic business objectives of the future. Depending on where the client organisation finds itself in the planning cycle, the LEA can be used in three phases, the first being the definition of the strategic leadership directions. LEA provides the framework for the process of defining the leadership requirements, setting strategic leadership directions and role expectations. Some functional roles that may require some leaders to adopt a style that is somewhat at variance with the overall leadership culture, such as a Financial Controller in a highly entrepreneurial company.

Thereafter, a 360 degree executive assessment may be conducted. Based on responses to the LEA Diagnostic Questionnaire, a feedback report is generated for each individual participant based on the input from self, boss, peers and direct reports. The feedback covers the 22 specific areas listed above. There are many different styles that will be more or less appropriate to an organisation at different times or different circumstances.

Each individual’s leadership success will depend on their ability to create organisational relationships that facilitate co-operation, performance, production and mutual satisfaction of needs and goals. The LEA places the emphasis on the future, on goal setting and movement towards attaining objectives.

Is it just about analysis, what about development?

Change on an individual or corporate level starts with self-analysis and self-awareness, but does not end there. Once the assessment is complete a clear picture emerges of what kind of leaders you have in the organisation. Our consultants provide development support to individuals and groups. The LEA has as one of its components a supplementary development workbook, which provides for goal setting and supports longer-term development.